Have you ever searched google and intentionally NOT clicked on the first search result of page one? Have you ever noticed that the first page is always “the same”? As a minor experiment I thought I would try to see what gems are luring beyond page one and chose three topics. Baby names (as you will see I have a bit of an interest in that), historical Scotland (again, bit of an interest) and finally, excel random columns (why-random!).

First let’s look at boys names. First page was as expected with all the “big name” sites appearing so off to page two. Came across childrensnames.org.uk. This is actually quite a nice site, not particularly big but what I did like was that it wasn’t full of peripheral nonsense. Random generators, baby advice etc. It does exactly what you expect it to do, give you a list of boys names.

The second, Scotland history. I got a bit waylaid with this one. I ended up looking at interactive maps of world conflicts. Tried page three of this one with what looked like an interesting site. However, it was so full of adverts that I ended up clicking on one of the links on the page. However, that took me to a site which was broken (used flash). So back to square one but did end up finding the excellent Historic Uk site

Third search was probably my biggest disaster. Simply couldn't find a page that would tell me what to do. Tried pages 3,4 & 5 before reverting to good old page one. Perhaps with some searches there is no getting beyond that

However, many text books start the history of Scotland with the arrival of the Romans in the AD 79, as if that were the start of Scotland's rich heritage. Whilst it is true that Agricola, a Roman general, was accompanied at the historian Tacitus, and provided the first written description of the people and of the region called Caledonia, it is clear that history doesn't start then.

The country we now call Scotland had been continuously, if sparsely, inhabited throughout its 4000 years, stretching almost halfway back to a time of the last ice age. The North Sea had not fully formed, but hardy communities of hunter-gatherers and semi nomadic pastoral groups had made settlements around the coasts.

Inland the countryside was thickly covered with dense forests, marshes and peat bogs. Wild grasses and heathers formed on the, still moving, hills and mountains. The land was rich in natural species such as bear, wolves, oxen and deer and provided rich pickings for these hunters and nomadic tribes.

Whilst life was not easy for these existing tribes, slowly waves of immigrants came up the shallow coasts of the North Sea and overland through the country which was to become England. These new settlers with their already tamed cattle and sheep and goats came from Europe, where Homo Sapiens had been established for nearly 20,000 years. Pigs and dogs may have become domesticated from the local wild stock and were often brought with them, rather than trying to tame the natural species.

However making a home in what was still a densely forested area was particularly hard for people equipped only with stone blades. Even from the earliest times, the inhabitants of Scotland would have realised that they were part of a wider economic structure. As immigrants, they realised where they have come from and stone age man who realised the importance of travel and trade.

Indeed early inhabitants of Scotland may have had as many languages as those of New Guinea still do and the people who lived in stone built and stone furnished house's in Orkney may have had no kinship, nor indeed interaction, with those who lived in wooden lodges in the East and the Glens.

Progress was likely to have been uneven as groups arrived from different starting points (countries) at different times.

Scotland is known for its long history and its distinctive food, spectacular views and its music. Through the years it has been the site of many wars and conflicts and also has it fair share of ghosts and mythical creatures. For many visitors to the country, the experience would not be complete without a night at the haunted hotels or hostels in Scotland.

Unlike other places, Scotland hostels include old castles or former family homes which would have been called stately homes by some, often located in old villages, with death throughout the ages.

One good example is Tulloch Castle, located in the highlands of Scotland and dating from the 12th century, and it has had a long and colourful history with the resident ghost, known as the Green Lady. A former stately home would be Norwood Hall Hotel in Aberdeen. This beautiful mansion dates back to the early to mid 1800's and still retains much of this early style. Complete with open log fires and oak panelling with the resident ghost supposedly one of Norwood Hall's previous owners who died over 100 years ago.

If you would rather visit than stay then there is always Corgaff Castle. This is a 16th century tower house which is surrounded by a star shaped defense wall. Typical of the area, it was the site of a feud between two families, the Forbes and the Gordon's. According to the legend, Margaret Campbell, wife of the Lairds did not want to vacate the area so the Gordon's set fire on the castle killing 26 women and children, including Margaret. There are several reports of ghostly scream emanating from the barrack room. It had been burned down several times and is now a property of the state belonging to historic scotland. Picture of Corgaff below, courtesy of scotlandforvisitors the couk website.

What comes up in your mind when you hear the words German history? What do you expect to and what can you imagine? The secodn world war (and indeed the first) or the great history of European culture, particularly philosophy including Sigmund Freud and Lacan. Well, many years ago, German was a great empire. Let us see German History pre-1900, and see how great this country was.

What made German the great empire?

The main reason why German was the great empire due to its strategic geography that has strategic land boundaries and high traffic sea boundary. The country was the main road between for the north and the south of Europe and the east and the west. When you can see the map, and find out how the country is actually near from the most leading nations in Europe: Russia, Austria, France, Belgium, Denmark, and Netherland. It was also the highway for daily sail route that would across the North Sea and has 1200 miles on the North from the Baltic seas. The strategic geography made German the great empire at the time. Some colonies were dependent on the Empire consisting of Togo, Cameroun, the Bismarck Archipelago, and others. In the German colonial system, every inhabitant of the colonies either white or non-white inhabitants has right on the political administration that is subject to the centralized bureaucracy. Since many years ago, German become one of the most wanted destination for refugees, and it has received the total number of refugees in the second place after Swiss. Generally, if the people of the colonies wanted to be the citizen of German, they had to pass the naturalization procedure.

Language Composition in German Pre-1900

Since German has become the friendliest country for many immigrants from all over the world, including the conflict areas in Europe, the composition of language in German pre-1900 was not dominated by The German language. The history recorded that although, at the earliest history of the country, the Eastern German was dominated by Germanic tribes. However, around the sixth century, the Slavs came to German and inhabited the Elbe and Saale. The extensive of Slavic settlement in German made the Slavic language one of the dominant foreign speaking languages at the time.

According to the census of 1900, 4,200,000 out of 56,000.000 inhabitants of German Empire were foreign language speakers. Out of the 4,200,000 were from Poles, 107,000 Czechs and Moravian, while others were from Danes, Dutch, Italian, French and Frisians. German has become also the most influential language in Europe and the world. Since the relation and contribution of German in many European cultures and politics, the language has become the important language in education. Moreover in the areas of certain European countries where German settlement were there, such as in the area of Southern Russian provinces in, which one of them founded in 1768 where the German has become the language in schools. In the area consisting of 173 villages, from the time of the settlement foundation, the German language has been dominant in Baltic provinces of the Russian Empire.